Remember the bubble gum cards that young lads once swapped in the school playground? Now grown men bid for them at London auction houses for hundreds of pounds and then some. This book chronicles the post-war era of Everton Football Club through bubble gum and other football cards.

"I remember that it was a couple of seasons after signing for Everton and I was included as card No. 37 in the series produced by A & BC along with my team-mates Jimmy Gabriel, Tony Kay, Brian Labone, Alex Scott, Roy Vernon and Alex Young. I was proud of my new status and was amused to learn from the Goodison grapevine that the Gordon West card was rare and, as a consequence, highly collectible. I even heard rumours that local schoolboys were prepared to exchange two Brian Labone cards for one Gordon West."

Brian Labone

"My team-mates received very little media attention. I do recall that it was a really big event to appear in Charles Buchan's magazine. Believe me it was a bigger deal to appear on bubble gum cards because they became the benchmark of your status away from home. "

Alex Young

"As a professional footballer, I had the pleasure of seeing my two sons carry around pictures of me. However, these feelings evaporated when my wife informed me that my eldest son had traded two of his Alex Young cards for one of Hearts legend Dave Mackay."